HMEA03204U FM, Between Documentary and Fiction

Throughout the history of documentary film, and perhaps especially for the last 20 years, the boundary towards fiction has been an issue. Blurring the boundary towards fiction has been criticized, but it has also provided productive new represenational strategies, and presently the border zone between documentary and fiction keeps being explored in new ways by ground-breaking films, as well as in new television formats.

This course aims to develop a historical and a theoretical framework for understanding this border zone, as well as to identify and analyze new films and television formats that position themselves discursively between documentary and fiction. Cases such as biographical film, animated documentaries, mockumentaries and essay films will be explored together with new digital strategies for making web documentaries that are partly interactive.

We will explore the CPH:DOX festival among other sources for interesting study objects and events. Active participation by students is expected.